Almost 25 tons of U.S. poultry seized on Russian border

On January 1, Russia introduced new sanitary standards, banning the treatment of meat with chlorine of a higher concentration than in drinking water.

The Far Eastern department of Russia's agriculture watchdog has seized almost 25 metric tons of U.S. poultry due to concerns over its quality, the department's deputy chief said on Wednesday.

"A container with 24.8 tons of frozen poultry arrived to Vladivostok from the United States during the inspection. Rosselkhoznadzor specialists discovered that the name of the producing company on the labels did not match the name on accompanying documentation," Vitaly Salenko said.

"The whole batch was seized and will be returned to the exporting country," he added.

On January 1, Russia introduced new sanitary standards, banning the treatment of meat with chlorine of a higher concentration than in drinking water.

A difficult negotiating process began between Russia and the United States, which previously accounted for over 80 percent of all poultry imports to Russia.

The talks resulted in Russia granting permission for 78 U.S. enterprises to supply poultry to Russia.